Romy Schneider: Loved - just for her hate role
The German-French actress Romy Schneider (1938-1982) would have celebrated her 80th birthday this Sunday (23 September). If she had meanwhile reconciled herself with the role of her life? This can only be speculated. The fact is, throughout her life it was important to shake off the "sweet Sissi".
However, she does not really succeed, because to this day the "Sissi" trilogy, in which she is to be seen as Empress Elisabeth (1837-1898), is an integral part of the annual Christmas television program. "Sissi" (1955), "Sissi - The Young Empress" (1956) and "Sissi - The Fateful Years of an Empress" (1967) are true cult films.
A little Viennese makes world career
The great career of only 1.61 meters tall and petite native Viennese Rosemarie Magdalena Albach began with the film "When the white lilac blossoms again," which came in 1953 in the cinemas. This was the first time that Romy Schneider, also at that time her stage name, could be seen alongside her mother, the Augsburg actress Magda Schneider (1909-1996).
The young artist celebrated her early career climax only a little later with the world-wide success of the "Sissi" films. Here, too, Magda and the only 16 -year-old Romy at the beginning of filming were seen as mother and daughter. Romy Schneider's father was the Austrian actor Wolf Albach-Retty (1906-1967). Her younger brother Wolf-Dieter Albach-Retty (78) was born in 1940. The marriage of her parents lasted from 1937 to 1945 - between separation and divorce, little Romy had just come to school.
The new life in Paris
A fourth "Sissi" film refused the young actress. Instead, she moved as a 20 -year-old with the then unknown French actor Alain Delon (82) in the fall of 1958 to Paris. The two got to know each other during the filming of "Christine" (1958). They became engaged in the spring of 1959, but never married.
Instead, followed in 1963 a painful separation. Romy Schneider, who was filming in Hollywood at the time, learned from the press that Alain Delon, now a world star, had a different wife. When Schneider returned to Paris, he had long since left the common abode - and soon also married.
But Romy Schneider also entered into the bond of marriage. In 1965 she met the Hamburg director and actor Harry Meyen (1924-1979). The two became a couple, moved to Berlin and married in July 1966. End of the year, their son David Christopher Meyen (1966-1981) was born.
In the 1970s, Romy Schneider predominantly and successfully shot in France. In 1973, Schneider and Meyen separated, the divorce took place in 1975. At this time, Schneider was already having a relationship with her French private secretary Daniel Biasini (69). The two married in late 1975. In the summer of 1977, their daughter Sarah Magdalena Biasini (41) was born. Schneider and Biasini divorced in May 1981. The French film producer Laurent Pétin (69) became her last partner.
The big stroke of fate
In July 1981, Romy Schneider's then 14-year-old son David was fatally killed while climbing over a metal-tipped fence in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, northwest of Paris. The big stroke of fate of her life. A few months later, Romy Schneider died on 29 May 1982 at the age of 43 in Paris. The official cause of death: heart failure.
Schneider was buried in the cemetery of Boissy -sans-Avoir. Not only did Alain Delon organize this funeral, but he also saw to it that Schneider's son from the cemetery in Saint-Germain-en-Laye was reburied into his mother's grave.
